Category Archives: Leadership

Coming soon – I’m currently working on developing eBook to share with you the exciting and impactful “Career Success Formula”.

This eBook is for ambitious, dedicated professionals like you who love to receive insights and take action to succeed in their life, career and business.

Frequently I have been receiving questions from my clients – do you have a proven formula that could be easily applied and help to make an impact for career success. That inspired me to develop this eBook and share with you my proven Career Success Formula.

Click on theCareer Success Formula from mid November 2016 for immediate access to FREE eBook “Career Success Formula” and learn how to get the right for you promotion or receive your dream job offer easier and faster!

You will discover simple concepts to follow so you never have to run after job ads again, but confidently get noticed and recognized for who you are and how you add value.

Change your traditional surroundings if you want to focus and innovate. To achieve a different outcome, you need to have a different perspective, a different environment and inspiration.

I encourage you – to get out of your traditional office environment and find a cosy buzzy place to bring your mindset a different perspective. Believe me – you will be amazed of the inspiration that arrives your way!

How often do you usually take time to revisit your success aspirations and widen your opportunity horizons? To start with, I recommend doing it at least once per quarter. And then – as frequently as you find it necessary. I will further share with you my five tips for constant revisitation.

Create a habit of revisiting your aspirations to ensure you stay on track of your passion and inspiration. Widen your horizons frequently – you will feel absolutely taken by the opportunities that this process creates.

Attend and be present in conferences, breakfast learning sessions, networking events to constantly stretch your mindset and widen your horizon. Build your network of people to connect with, learn and share the learning. It is much more fun doing it together! A few weeks ago I received loads of inspiration at the leadership conference in Riga, Latvia: vaditajukonference.lv I gave a presentation on the Leadership Personal Brand theme and learned from many other presentations and conference participants.

Write your learnings in blog posts and share your learnings with others. In this way you will remember it better and people who will read your learnings will benefit from it as well. Sharing is learning together. When I write my blog posts about my learnings, it keeps generating new insights that I can further share and apply.

Follow up your conference contacts – you will be surprised of the extent of opportunities it will generate for you. Both for you to add value to your contacts and also to learn from them. Every event I have attended and followed up on my contacts and connections has brought me new and exciting opportunities to do what I enjoy doing in life – which is to add value for people by helping them to build their personal brand to succeed.

Every weekend reflect and pick your one key success of the week– what is one thing you are happy with on your achievement? And celebrate it – as a way to acknowledge success. This starts to create the success mindset and attract more success in your life. It works like a snowball effect – the more you notice and acknowledge little victories, the more of them will come your way. Enjoy doing it, but do keep your humbleness with you at all times for balance.

Morning started as usual. We were going to have the 2nd day of the European business leadership board meeting on 22 March. Checking out of a beautiful hotel, the Dominican, in Brussels centre, I was almost on the way to take the subway to the office. A colleague from Brussels suggested that he has a car and can drive a few people to the office. I did not mind – can either take subway or car, I’m easy-going.

While we were sorting out who would go via the underground and who will travel to the office by car, another colleague, who was going to go back to London at around 11ish that day, hence was still in her room, was desperately trying to reach us. She had seen in the morning news that there had been a bomb attack in the Brussels airport. It sounded surreal! Shocking! We all grabbed our smart phones and started to check the news. While reading the tragic and shocking news, we could not still realize, what had just happened.

Despite the news, we were on the way to office anyway, so we had to sort out the logistics of who takes the car and who takes the metro, to get there. Our leader Tony said: ”Wait! Let’s reconsider it here. I remember, when there was a bomb attack threat in this country some time ago, the government closed all the underground transport. Now there has been a real attack at the airport. Most probably, they will close the subway sooner or later for security. Currently the subway is still functioning, but for how long? Let’s take taxi!”

Despite the fact, that in the previous day, we all got acquainted with a new enhanced company expense policy, so, this was a situation, where you have to trust your leadership and make a judgement call. The first leadership lesson:

Trust your leadership judgement

We took taxis instead of the subway to office. And when arrived at the office, we discovered in the news that there was another bomb attack in the center – nearby the hotel where we were staying – in the station from where we were going to take the train to the office. This got us gutted. We were one leadership decision away from being in the middle of an explosion. I cannot really describe that feeling when you feel like you are born again and thankful for your life. It puts things into different perspective.

Put your people first,

is the second leadership lesson learned. On the way to the office we were checking whether everyone from the Belgium offices were safe and not been close to any explosions. One colleague was actually going to be flying out from the airport that morning – he reported to be safe and not injured. There was relief in the team and much bonding together. I was amazed later how much the local Belgium team cared for the European Leadership team to be taken care of, despite their concern about their own families as well.

Although, our leader was chased from the London office about the important deadlines, and presentation decks for important meetings, he said – “I will think about our people first, when they are safe, they will deliver for our customers and internal stakeholders. Definitely, I will manage to reply to stakeholders, but – our people come first.”

Be flexible to change your plan

Although we had a very busy board meeting agenda for that Tuesday, and Tony is a very driven, results focused and demanding leader, he asked the question – what shall we do – deliver on the agenda, stay here until tomorrow or until the security warning decreases and then go home or figure out how to get away from here? Although there were really a lot of things on the board meeting agenda to resolve (including my Talent management session, which is important), some people suggested – it is not safe here, we can not focus on the agenda while the country is on a 4th degree security warning (highest), lets figure out how to get out of here.

Diversity helps to look at wider range of options

Having 12 people to listen to in the team from different countries, professional backgrounds, nationalities, gender, and life experiences was a big help in reviewing all the options for the day and to decide on the most appropriate. It was a worth while experience to hear different approaches, options, opinions and together to land a solution for the day.

Play to people’s talents and strengths, they will excel in what they are great at

In the crisis situation that we were in, naturally we started to focus and contribute in the areas we could best add value to – Operations professionals helped searched for transport options, schedules, nearest cities; Frequent travellers – suggesting which airports/train stations are most convenient and how to get there. Human resources – ensured we should take care of the local Belgium team and people, not just the European Leadership Team, Sales & Trading – keeping spirits up with some jokes and anecdotes.

Care for your people and they will care for you

The first thing I did while travelling in the car from the hotel to the office – was to message the office manager and HR leader to check in on the Belgium people, whether all are safe, whether anyone was travelling at this time from the airport. When speaking to people in the office, one colleague said – she is really worried about her daughter that is in kindergarten currently. I suggested – if she is worried about her daughter, she should do what she feels best in the current situation – to drive safely and pick up her daughter from kindergarten. They can then go home safely and she can continue to work from home as necessary.

It was extraordinary, how the Brussels office colleagues cared about the European Leadership Team to ensure we get home safe. They first thought about the leadership team and only afterwards – about how they are going to travel home themselves.

Involve your team in decision making

There came a point where Tony asked: “What do you want to do – stay here until tomorrow or figure out today how to get home?” It was not about telling – we will do this or that. But together, deciding on what is the best option in the current situation, for the team and for each and every individual. Every single person was important – we did not leave until we figured out how Ignacio will get home to Madrid (he had to make quite a journey from Brussels to Lille to Paris to Madrid) and how to get Barbara out of the hotel and to the team (as by 10am there were no more taxi’ s available, neither any other transport).

Humour helps to release stress

To be honest – some people freaked out at the situation and just said – get me out of here, I’m not staying! And that is a normal reaction to enormous stress levels. What was helpful were some silly jokes during the conversations and while figuring out what to do and how to get home safe for everyone. It was quite a logistical nightmare – to get people from Brussels to Spain, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, or just to home for those that lived in Brussels, as there was no transport from Brussels available – no airplanes, no trains, no car rentals. Together, creatively we solved the logistics puzzle.

Have a strong team

Having a strong team helps to have good times in business and enhance strong business results, and helps to travel through tough times successfully together. Big respect to my colleagues who suggested – I have a car, I can drive to the centre to pick up Barbara from the hotel, I just need someone to travel with me as that area might be closed down due to high risk and recent explosions. Big respect also to the colleagues who effortlessly drove other colleagues to a neighbour country such as the Netherlands, to the airport and to the Lille train station. And big respect to the colleagues from the Belgium office, who first wanted to ensure that the European Leadership Team is managed and safe, and only then thought about – how will they get home.

Final thoughts:

The day started as a usual day, but it turned out so unexpected. While remaining calm and grounded during the day, emotions only kicked in for me in the evening, when I returned home. I felt exhausted from the stress, sad for the people in Belgium, angry at the situation and the people who can cold-bloodily do these kinds of things – taking away innocent lives. It kicked in for me later that I was one leadership decision away from being in the middle of the explosion. Shocking! And – grateful for my leader’s decisions, team collaboration and the care for each other that was shown that day. This really puts things into a different perspective, something, I will never forget.

Motivation is something external to the person. It’s done to them. And it’s too difficult a job for you as a leader to constantly motivate your people. Inspire them instead. It’s much easier and enjoyable for you and more energizing for your people.

How to inspire instead of motivate? Here are the top 3 steps to inspire:

Find out what are their talents and strengths

Discover their highest values

Help them to achieve their aspirations – their STARs

Talents and Strengths

The magic is knowing your people’s talents – knowing what they are great at and helping them to apply the things they love doing. This makes them enjoy what they do and feel happy about it. When people know and are confident about their key talents and apply them in what they do and want to achieve, it enhances their success opportunity extraordinarily. It brings confidence, impact and focus to deliver with excellence.

Why would you as a leader in business want to spend time and effort to motivate someone to do things that they are not inspired about and will not feel passionate about doing? Instead give them the opportunity to do the job they are excited and inspired about. It takes less effort for you to place people in roles that they are inspired and talented to contribute and excel, rather than to keep motivating people to do a job they dislike in a culture they can not shine in.

Highest Values

If you are clear on what are your values and choose your job, role, relationships in accordance to them, you generate energy.

If among my strong values are independence and creativity, but I choose the job where I have to strictly follow the rules, like risk manager or underwriter, then I will not be happy about the content of my role as I will constantly have to do something that does not naturally resonate with my core being. The set of values that each individual has is unique to them.

Highest value – you are spontaneously inspired to do the job that resonates to your highest value. You get up and do it, You do not need a motivation to do it. Napoleon Hill called it, chief aim. It is a burning desire to fulfil. Doing the job that fulfils your highest value is one of the secrets to master your life. It’s intrinsic.

Lowest value – you need a motivation to do the job that is in congruence with your lowest values. You find it difficult and de-energizing. You do not enjoy doing a job that relates to your lowest values. Therefore you need an external stimulus to motivate you to complete that job.

It is more difficult than doing the job that you are naturally inspired by . And for leaders it takes much more effort, time and energy to motivate people to do the job that they do not feel naturally inspired to do. It is much more rewarding to inspire people to excel in their jobs that they enjoy doing and that are contributing to their highest values.

Inspiration is calling from within, building on intrinsic values and talents. Motivation is pushing from outside to do something that your person does not enjoy.

Help to reach their STARs

Nobody goes to work for the sake of the company. People go to work to fulfil their highest values, aspirations, to reach their stars – whatever stars mean for each and every individual. If they see how their job, vision, mission of company helps to fulfil their highest value, they are inspired to contribute and to be effective to deliver. If not – they have low productivity and need to be constantly motivated. If their job fulfils their highest value, they can not wait to get to work each and every day and add value to the company. They feel ownership, responsibility, commitment. They are engaged and constantly improve their customer service to deliver upon their personal excellence.

Your wisdom as a leader is to place people in the right role that will help them to reach their stars and add massive value to the company. The role that they feel inspired about, so you do not need to put an extra effort to motivate them. Instead – inspire your people by giving them projects and opportunities that play to their strengths , talents and values.

Your wisdom is to fill your day with high priority things where you add value. If you do not fill up your day with high priority actions that inspire you, it will be automatically filled with low value distractions projected by other people that are low according to their values.

Ask yourself on a daily basis what the highest priority actions I can do today that generates most income, inspiration etc. Rest – delegate to somebody else. How do you live an inspired life if you keep doing desperate things? There is always somebody that matches the job you need to delegate. Make sure its congruent with their values, so you do not need to micromanage and motivate them. Inspire them instead!

Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room, as per Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. It is about your behaviour – how you treat other people, what you say, how congruent it is to your personal values.

In companies where leaders highly value customer relationships and service as well as their people inspiration and development, leaders develop their leadership brand to better engage with their people and empower them to WOW the customer.

Personal brand development is more important

Personal brand has become more important than company and corporate brand development. Why? Because people that work in a company are building a company brand by how they serve customers, how they communicate and deliver or exceed the expectations of customers and shareholders. Customers trust people more than companies and they build relationships with people, rather than with companies.

If you have an issue with a product or service that you recently bought, whom do you call? The company? No, you call the person who can help you solve the issue. And who is answering the phone? The company? No – the person. The way this customer service person will treat you and help to solve your issue, you will make an assumption about the company brand experience and will develop your judgement about that particular company.

Great leaders inspire their people to serve the customer with excellence

I have been researching what takes it from a good to a great leadership, and here is what I have discovered: Leaders who develop their personal brand are much more impactful to inspire their people and teams to WOW the customer. They are very clear on what is their message, what is their purpose and role and what they want to achieve to exceed.

Employees need clarity from their leader and vision to follow. Personal brand development makes people more impactful and successful in their roles by having better clarity – what are their strengths and talents, how they can best add value and gain personal satisfaction in adding the value to customers, their company, their teams. Therefore, current workshops and coaching sessions for employees and leaders focus on how to develop their personal brand and to become an integral part of Talent or leadership development. .

Personal brand development is about clarity and adding value

I encourage people to build their personal brand to be able to better serve customers. Developing personal brand means having clarity on what value you are adding to the people around you, to your customers – in the way how you treat them and help them with solutions. Do you deliver a solution or service that exceeds expectations? People and companies with strong brands never start out with the intent to build a great brand for themselves. They build it to better serve others.

How do you help your experts to differentiate themselves in the market?, is one of the questions for you to ask to develop your company business success. For your employees to have clarity on how do they add value – by providing innovative customer solutions, by being visible, accessible and reachable for your customers, by managing the claims in the way that adds value for customer business, by developing innovative solutions and products that improve life for your customers.

When people build their personal brand, their confidence increases tremendously. Their impact in the team and market increases. They have better job satisfaction and engagement. They are much happier with what they do and how they do it. It is a benefit for employees, for customers and for the company.

Developing careers

The journey of personal brand development allows people to not just better serve customers, but also be more clear on their career aspirations – how do they want to progress in their careers based on their passion, talents, strengths, values – to choose the career that is most congruent for them.

We all know the saying that “people join a company, but leave the leader”. Unfortunately not many companies help their team leaders develop their personal brand to better succeed in people engagement and customer service. In the best companies, they do. That is one of the approaches that the best companies to work for are taking to develop their people, leaders and customer service.

Based on a survey conducted by Glenn Llopis organization in USA, less than 15% of people have truly defined their personal brand and less than 5% are living it consistently at work – each and every day. Why? It can be extremely challenging and it requires a tremendous amount of self-awareness, action and accountability. Because when you develop your personal brand and commit to it, you will live your personal excellence every day. That is very rewarding, but also challenging.

I believe that personal brand is not so much about self-promotion, but it is rather a commitment to advance yourself by differentiating the way how you are serving others and adding value to others lives. I wish there were more companies in the market who do so.